[cardsfan73]

I would go with 1982 Topps Baseball simply for pure nostalgia.

The end of 1981 baseball season was when I first really got into baseball and by that time most of local stores had sold through their Topps Baseball and only had Football wax packs (which I did buy and was lucky enough to pull a Montana RC, but this then 9 year old football fan was more interested in cards of Terry Bradshaw & Jim Hart so the Montana didn't mean a lot to me at the time.) Moving on though.. Summer of 1982 and my beloved Cardinals are having a hell of a year.. Ozzie Smith, Lonnie Smith, Tommy Herr, Keith Hernandez, "Silent" George Hendrick and rookie call up by the name of Willie McGee had me hooked!! I spent all my allowance buying wax packs from Art's Drug Store, Ben Franklin & Majik Market. Ok so maybe a few quarters found there way into the Donkey Kong machine at Majik Market...Then I discovered rack packs at our local Kroger! I was pretty disappointed to find Ozzie Smith still in his Padres uniform and no Willie McGee cards at all!! What's worse than that? It seemed like I pulled a John Henry Johnson card out of every other pack. I HATED THAT CARD!!

So for no other reason than nostalgia and pure hobby innocence (didn't know what a price guide was and we would not get our first card shop until 1986) I would choose 1982 Topps Baseball.